"And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the joy of the battle was on them, and the sound of their singing that was fair and terrible came even to the City."

Saturday, May 3, 2014

Day in Deuteronomy

This is the continuation of a study on the word "day" in the Pentateuch. For introductory remarks please refer to the initial post on Genesis.I have divided these up into four (there is an extra one for Deuteronomy) categories: All the uses of day with a number, all the uses of "this day," all the uses of day which in context mean a typical day, and any uses of day which could mean a long period of time.

One additional note on Deuteronomy. The ESV
translates the word “yom” as “today” 58 times in Deuteronomy. So you can add to
this list 58 other places in Deuteronomy where the word “yom” means a typical, 24
hour day. Where the ESV has “today” the
KJV often has “this day” or “that day” or just “day.”

Uses of Day with the Number (1st,
2nd, 3rd, etc.)

(Deu 1:3) In the
fortieth year, on the first day of
the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that
the LORD had given him in commandment to them,

(Deu 5:14) but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD
your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or
your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of
your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male
servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.

(Deu 16:3) You shall
eat no leavened bread with it. Seven
days you shall eat it with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction—for
you came out of the land of Egypt in haste—that all the days of your life you may remember
the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.

(Deu 16:4) No leaven
shall be seen with you in all your territory for seven days, nor shall any of the flesh that you sacrifice on the
evening of the first day remain all
night until morning.

(Deu 16:8) For six days you shall eat unleavened
bread, and on the seventh day there
shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD your God. You shall do no work on it.

Use of “This Day” in Deuteronomy

I have decided to create a category I did not have
for the other books of Moses. The frequent use of this phrase stuck out to me
as I studied. “This day” in Deuteronomy
can refer to different days, but it always refers to a specific point in time, not to a long period of time.

(Deu 2:22) as he did
for the people of Esau, who live in Seir, when he destroyed the Horites before
them and they dispossessed them and settled in their place even to this day.

(Deu 2:25)This day I will begin to put the dread
and fear of you on the peoples who are under the whole heaven, who shall hear
the report of you and shall tremble and be in anguish because of you.'

(Deu 2:30) But Sihon
the king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the LORD your God
hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into
your hand, as he is this day.

(Deu 3:14) Jair the
Manassite took all the region of Argob, that is, Bashan, as far as the border
of the Geshurites and the Maacathites, and called the villages after his own
name, Havvoth-jair, as it is to this day.)

(Deu 4:20) But the
LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be
a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day.

(Deu 4:38) driving out
before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in, to give you
their land for an inheritance, as it is this
day,

(Deu 5:24) And you
said, 'Behold, the LORD our God has shown us his glory and greatness, and we
have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire. This day we have seen God speak with man, and man still live.

(Deu 6:24) And the
LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our
good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day.

(Deu 8:18) You shall
remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth,
that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day.

(Deu 10:8) At that
time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of
the LORD to stand before the LORD to minister to him and to bless in his name, to this day.

(Deu 10:15) Yet the
LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after
them, you above all peoples, as you are
this day.

(Deu 11:4) and what he
did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made
the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the
LORD has destroyed them to this day,

(Deu 26:16) "This day the LORD your God commands you
to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with
all your heart and with all your soul.

(Deu 29:4) But to this day the LORD has not given you a
heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.

(Deu 29:28) and the
LORD uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and cast
them into another land, as they are this
day.'

(Deu 34:6) and he
buried him in the valley in the land of Moab opposite Beth-peor; but no one
knows the place of his burial to this
day.

Uses
of Day Which Are in Context, Typical 24 Hour Days

Just
a reminder that Sabbath Day is defined in Exodus as the Saturday at the end of a seven 24 hour day week. There is no reason to interpret it any differently in Deuteronomy.

(Deu 1:33) who went
before you in the way to seek you out a place to pitch your tents, in fire by night and in the cloud by day,
to show you by what way you should go.

(Deu 4:10) how on the
day that you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, the LORD said to me,
'Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may
learn to fear me all the days that
they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.'

(Deu 4:15) "Therefore
watch yourselves very carefully. Since you saw no form on the day that the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the midst of the
fire,

(Deu 5:15) You shall remember
that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you
out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the LORD
your God commanded you to keep the
Sabbath day.

(Deu 9:7) Remember
and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the
wilderness. From the day you came
out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious
against the LORD.

(Deu 9:10) And the
LORD gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on
them were all the words that the LORD had spoken with you on the mountain out
of the midst of the fire on the day of
the assembly.

(Deu 9:24) You have
been rebellious against the LORD from
the day that I knew you. [The “I” here is Moses, not God.]

(Deu 10:4) And he
wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments that
the LORD had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And the LORD
gave them to me.

(Deu 18:16) just as you
desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the
day of the assembly, when you said, 'Let me not hear again the voice of the
LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.'

(Deu 21:16)then on the day when he assigns his
possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the
loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the
firstborn,

(Deu 21:23) his body
shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is
cursed by God. You shall not defile your land that the LORD your God is giving
you for an inheritance.

(Deu 24:15) You shall
give him his wages on the same day, before
the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the
LORD, and you be guilty of sin.

(Deu 27:2) And on the day you cross over the Jordan to
the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones
and plaster them with plaster.

(Deu 27:9) Then Moses
and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, "Keep silence and hear, O
Israel: this day you have become the
people of the LORD your God.

(Deu 27:11)That day Moses charged the people, saying,

(Deu 28:32) Your sons
and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on
and fail with longing for them all day
long, but you shall be helpless.

(Deu 28:66) Your life
shall hang in doubt before you. Night
and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life.

(Deu 31:22) So Moses
wrote this song the same day and
taught it to the people of Israel.

(Deu 32:48) That very day the LORD spoke to Moses,

Uses of Day That Could Mean a Long Period of Time

(Deu 4:32) "For
ask now of the days that are past,
which were before you, since the day that
God created man on the earth, and ask from one end of heaven to the other,
whether such a great thing as this has ever happened or was ever heard of.

Of course, how you translate the word “day” here
depends a lot on what you think of the creation account. It could very easily refer to the sixth day of creation when God made Adam.

(Deu 31:17) Then my
anger will be kindled against them in that
day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be
devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will
say in that day, 'Have not these
evils come upon us because our God is not among us?'

(Deu 31:18) And I will
surely hide my face in that day
because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other
gods.

This is referring to a future time when Israel
rebels against the Lord and the Lord brings his wrath against them for their
sins. (Deuteronomy 31:16-21) Therefore this could mean a period of time in the
future when Israel is judged by God. But it could also mean a specific day when
God pours out his wrath on Israel. Looking at II Kings 25 where this prophecy
was fulfilled, one finds numerous specific days mentioned (II Kings 25:1, 3, 8,
27). Any of those days would literally fulfill this prophecy. It could mean a
period of several years while Israel was judged, but does not have to. If it
does mean many years, that “day” is limited to a few decades at most.

(Deu 32:35) Vengeance
is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at
hand, and their doom comes swiftly.'

Of all the verses, this one is the most difficult
to interpret. What “day” is Moses talking about? It is similar to the previous
verses in that Moses is talking about judgment coming upon Israel for her sins. However, a plain reading of the text is that this is referring to some future time when God will judge -Israel. Like 31:17-18 it could refer to a period of time, but that time period would not be long.

(Deu 33:12) Of Benjamin
he said, "The beloved of the LORD dwells in safety. The High God surrounds
him all day long, and dwells between
his shoulders."

This use of the word “day” is governed by the “all”
prior to it. A paraphrase could be
translated “surrounds him all the time.” The idea is one of protection for the
tribe of Benjamin. So here "day" does mean a longer period of time, but the reason we know this is the words that surround "day," the context.

So unlike the first four books of Moses, Deuteronomy has a couple of more difficult passages, but in the end there is nothing in those passages that indicate "day" could mean a long period of time. The research shows the following:Every time the word day is used in Deuteronomy with a number it means a 24 hour day.When it is not used with the number it usually points to a specific day in the past, present, or future. There are a couple of spots where Deuteronomy uses "day" to mean a time period longer than 24 hours. However, we know these mean longer periods of time by the context. In these instances "day" does not mean millions or even hundreds of years. It means at most a a few decades.

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Let the saints be joyful in glory, let them sing aloud on their beds, let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples; to bind the kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron. Psalm 149:5-8